New OECD Report Warns Income Inequality In Spain Getting Bigger

A new report entitled In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released this week confirms that there is a growing gap between the rich and poor in Spain since the start of the economic crisis.

According to the report Spain has the fifth highest rate of inequality of all OECD countries in Europe.

The bottom 10 per cent of Spaniards have lost 13 per cent of their real incomes between 2007 and 2011, whilst the top 10 per cent only lost 1.4 per cent. Overall household income dropped an average annual 3.5 per cent between these years.

The report reveals how the income gap between the rich and the poor around the world is at its highest level in 30 years.

“The gap between rich and poor keeps widening. Since [the crisis], disparities widened and in many OECD countries inequality is today at its highest since data collection started,” stated the report.

The population below the poverty line in Spain is at a staggering 18 per cent, with those likely to fall into poverty being the younger generation, not the elderly.

Tax and benefit reforms introduced between the years 2007 and 2012 considerably reduced benefits and increased taxation in Spain, contributing to the growing inequality.